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INAUGURATION 


OF    THE    NEW    BUILDING    OF   THE 


COLLEGE  OF  PHYSICIANS  AND  SURGEONS 


AND   OF   THE 


Sloane  Maternity  Hospital 


AND   THEi, 


Vanderbilt  Clinic 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 

DEPARTMENT  OF  PHYSIOLOGY 

COLLEGE  OF  PHYSICIANS  AND  SURGEONS 

437  WEST  FIFTY  NINTH  STREET 

NEW  YORK 


College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons 

IN  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK; 

^eDical  2)epartment  of  Columbia  College. 


ADDRESSES 

AT  THE  INAUGURATION  OF  THE 

NEW  COLLEGE   BUILDING 

September  29TH,  1887  ; 

AND   OF   THE 

SLOANE   MATERNITY   HOSPITAL 


AND   THE 


VANDERBILT  CLINIC 

December  29TH,  1887. 


PUBLISHED   BY   ORDER   OF   THE   COLLEGE 
1888 


/FTF 


The  new  building  of  the  College  of  Physicians 
and  Surgeons,  at  437  West  59th  Street,  was  inaug- 
urated September  29th,  1887. 

THE   EXERCISES    CONSISTED    OF 

I.  Prayer,  from  the  Rev.   SULLIVAN   H.  WESTON,  D.D., 
Trustee. 

11.  Historical  Sketch  of  the  College,  by  J.  C.  D ALTON,  M.D., 
President. 

III.  Inaugural  Address,    with   Presentation    of  Busts    and 
Portrait,  by  William  H.  Draper,  M.D.,  Trustee. 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH    OF   THE   COLLEGE 

BY 

J.  C.  DALTON,  M.D. 

Gentlemen,  Alumni  of  the  College  of  Physicians 
AND  Surgeons  ;  members  of  the  Board  of  Trustees, 

AND  OF  THE  FaCULTY  I 

We  are  assembled  today  to  inaugurate  a  new 
epoch  in  the  existence  of  the  College.  After  being 
sustained  for  so  many  years  by  the  unremitting  devo- 
tion of  its  teachers,  officers  and  alumni,  it  has  now 
received  recognition  and  support  from  other  sources 
than  the  medical  profession.  It  has  felt  the  impulse 
of  a  generous  and  enlightened  commercial  prosperity ; 
and  after  many  varied  experiences  and  changes  of  lo- 
cation, it  is  transferred  at  last  to  this  ample  domain 
and  to  these  new  buildings.  I  am  deputed  to  present, 
as  part  of  the  exercises  of  the  occasion,  a  brief  sketch 
of  the  history  of  the  institution.  In  the  discharge  of 
that  duty,  may  I  ask  your  indulgence  while  I  recall 
some  of  the  main  features  in  the  story  of  its  progress 
and  fortunes  to  the  present  time  ? 

The  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  had  its 
origin  in  a  spontaneous  movement  of  the  profession  in 
the  city  of  New  York  for  the  cultivation  and  improve- 
ment of  medical  science  and  art.  In  the  year  1807  the 
Medical  Society  of  the  county  of  New  York  adopted 


4  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

a  memorial  to  the  Legislature,  setting  forth  the  de- 
sire of  its  members  to  "  promote  the  progress  of  med- 
ical knowledge,"  and  to  give  "encouragement  and 
protection  "  to  the  pursuit  of  medical  science  ;  and  ex- 
pressing the  belief  that  they  would  be  aided  in  that  ob- 
ject if  they  were  incorporated  as  a  college,  under  the 
auspices  of  the  State  university.  They  also  addressed 
a  petition  to  the  Regents  of  the  university,  declaring 
that  "  their  efforts  would  be  more  successful  if  directed 
under  the  patronage  of  the  Regents,"  and  praying  the 
Regents  to  "■  favor  the  views  of  the  said  Society." 

This  action  met  with  a  prompt  response ;  and 
within  a  month  thereafter  the  members  of  the  Soci- 
ety were  duly  incorporated  as  a  college,  with  all  the 
rights  and  privileges  of  such  an  institution. 

The  Medical  Society  of  the  county  of  New  York 
was  then  in  the  second  year  of  its  existence  ;  and 
numbered  one  hundred  and  thirty-nine  members,  em- 
bracing all  the  legally  qualified  practitioners  in  the  vi- 
cinity. Its  constituent  meeting,  July  i,  1806,  is  called, 
in  the  printed  report,  a  "meeting  of  the  Physicians 
and  Surgeons  of  the  City  and  County  of  New  York." 
In  the  address  of  its  presiding  officer,  on  the  follow- 
ing day,  it  is  spoken  of  by  the  same  designation ;  and 
when,  beside  their  organization  as  a  Society,  its  mem- 
bers were  also  incorporated  as  a  college,  the  institution 
so  established  was  entided  the  College  of  Physicians 
AND  Surgeons  in  the  city  of  New  York. 

The  College  was  therefore,  in  its  primary  organi- 
zation, a  creation  of  the  Medical  Society  of  the  county 


OF  THE   COLLEGE.  5 

of  New  York  ;  and  the  body  of  Its  trustees  or  members 
comprised  all  the  members  of  that  society.  This  forms 
one  of  its  most  honorable  claims  to  distinction.  It  repre- 
sented the  best  endeavors  of  the  profession  for  the  im- 
provement of  medical  knowledge  and  education.  It  em- 
bodied their  hopes  for  the  immediate  needs  of  the  time, 
and  laid  the  foundation  for  further  progress  in  the  future. 

But  it  seldom  happens  that  an  educational  institu- 
tion can  be  administered  by  so  large  a  body  of  mana- 
gers as  the  whole  membership  of  the  county  Medical 
Society.  However  sincere  their  intention,  they  could 
not  all  possess  the  requisite  knowledge,  nor  command 
the  necessary  time  for  the  regulation  of  its  affairs ;  and 
at  their  first  meeting,  for  the  organization  of  the  Col- 
lege, only  sixty-three  members  were  present.  Other 
defects  in  the  charter  became  apparent  on  trial;  and  in 
the  following  year  the  College  presented  a  request  for 
certain  changes,  which  were  thought  "  important  to 
the  stability  and  usefulness  of  the  institution."  The 
charter  was  consequently  amended  by  an  ordinance 
passed  March  3d,  1808. 

The  changes  introduced  by  this  amendment  were 
two-fold.  First,  the  officers  of  the  College,  instead  of 
being  elected  annually  by  the  corporation,  were  ap- 
pointed by  the  Regents,  thus  giving  greater  stability 
to  the  organization.  Secondly,  all  members  of  the 
Medical  Society  who  wished  to  serve  as  trustees  or 
members  of  the  College,  were  required  to  declare  in 
writing  their  acceptance  of  the  trust,  and  that  they 
would,    "  to  the  best  of  their  abiUties,  promote  the 


6  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

usefulness  of  the  said  College,  and  faithfully  execute 
the  duties  required  of  them."  By  this  means  the 
institution  was  relieved  of  its  doubtful  or  indifferent 
members,  and  was  entrusted  to  those  who  had  faith 
in  its  destiny  and  would  give  it  the  guaranty  of  their 
favor  and  support. 

In  the  mean  time  the  College  had  elected  its  offi- 
cers, and  had  been  provided  with  professors  and  lect- 
urers. A  circular,  addressed  to  the  different  medical 
societies  in  the  State,  informed  them  that  "  under  the 
direction  and  patronage  of  the  Regents,  the  College 
of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  have  established  a  School 
of  Physic  ;"  and  that  they  have  procured,  "in  a  cen- 
tral part  of  the  city,"  a  commodious  building,  where 
apartments  will  be  fitted  up  for  the  lecturers  and 
students.  The  arrangements  were  completed  in  ac- 
cordance with  this  plan,  and  the  first  course  of  lectures 
was  duly  opened  on  Tuesday,  November  loth,  1807. 

This  "  central  part  of  the  city,"  where  the  College 
was  inaugurated,  was  Robinson  street.  Few  of  my 
hearers  will  be  likely  to  recognize  this  location  ;  and 
in  fact  its  name  has  long  ago  disappeared  from  the 
city  maps.  It  was  a  short  street  running  west  from 
Broadway  to  the  grounds  then  occupied  by  Colum- 
bia College,  and  formed  a  portion  of  what  is  now 
Park  Place.  Even  its  present  designation  has  long 
been  a  misnomer,  since  the  disappearance  of  the 
Park  from  its  eastern  extremity,  and  its  extension  as 
a  street  in  the  opposite  direction  to  the  North  River. 
Probably  not   a  single  feature   of    the  locality,  as  it 


OF  THE   COLLEGE.  7 

then  was,  exists  today.  But  for  us  it  has  a  certain 
mysterious  interest,  as  the  earHest  domicile  of  the 
College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons. 

At  that  time  the  population  of  New  York  was  a 
little  more  than  one  twentieth  of  what  it  is  now.  Most 
of  the  city  was  below  Chambers  street.  The  wealth- 
ier residences  were  at  the  lower  end  of  Broadway, 
about  the  Battery  and  Bowling  Green,  with  the  shops 
in  the  upper  part  of  the  same  street.  Broadway  was 
paved  only  to  the  neighborhood  of  Canal  street,  be- 
yond which  it  continued  as  a  road.  Canal  street  it- 
self existed  only  on  paper,  and  was  represented  by 
a  swamp  and  a  sluggish  stream,  crossed  by  a  bridge 
at  the  intersection  of  Broadway.  The  New  York 
Hospital  was  in  an  open  space  of  several  acres  on 
the  west  side  of  Broadway,  between  the  present 
Duane  and  Worth  streets.  The  water  supply  of  the 
city  was  from  wells  and  pumps,  usually  situated  in  the 
middle  of  the  street.  The  ferries  to  Brooklyn  and 
the  Jersey  shore  were  served  by  row-boats  and  small 
sailing  craft.  There  were  neither  Croton  water  works 
nor  gas  companies  ;  and  none  of  the  streets  were  or- 
namented with  telegraph  poles  or  elevated  railroads. 

But  notwithstanding  this  contrast  with  the  appear- 
ance of  the  city  at  present,  it  would  be  a  mistake  to 
suppose  that  there  was  anything  that  could  be  called 
primitive  in  its  people  or  their  mode  of  life.  They 
occupied  a  smaller  area,  and  lived  at  the  beginning  of 
the  century.  But  in  every  other  respect  than  space 
and  time,  the  city  in  1807  was  the  New  York  of  to- 


8  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

day  ;  busy,  enterprising-,  luxurious  and  progressive. 
There  was  the  same  activity,  the  same  liberaHty  of 
ideas,  the  same  continuous  movement  of  expansion. 
The  population  had  increased  over  thirty  per  cent 
since  1800  ;  and  in  certain  localities  the  land  was  said 
to  have  tripled  in  value  within  twenty  years.  There 
were  seven  or  eight  daily  newspapers,  and  a  medical 
quarterly,  edited  by  two  of  the  most  prominent  mem- 
bers of  the  profession. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  the  city  and  the  times 
when  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  came 
into  existence.  Its  first  course  was  attended  by  fifty 
three  students.  The  Regents  reported  that  it  had 
commenced  its  business  in  a  manner  "  to  answer  all 
the  expectations  entertained  in  its  establishment ;  " 
and  they  recommended  it  to  the  Legislature  as  an 
institution  "  important  to  the  welfare  of  the  people 
of  the  State."  At  the  second  session  its  class  num- 
bered seventy  six  ;  and  at  the  third  eighty  two. 

But  what  was  the  daily  course  of  college  busi- 
ness, as  then  carried  on  ?  Would  it  not  be  an  inter- 
esting experience  if  we  could  go  with  the  student  of 
those  early  sessions,  sit  with  him  on  the  benches  at 
No.  18  Robinson  Street,  and  hear  the  professors  dis- 
course on  the  topics  of  the  time  ?  How  would  a  day 
at  the  College  in  1807  differ  from  one  spent  there 
now,  after  eighty  years  have  gone  by  ?  The  records 
are  rather  scanty  as  to  these  details ;  but  they  show 
to  some  extent  what  the  College  undertook  to  do, 
and  how  it  was  accomplished. 


OF   THE   COLLEGE.  9 

In  the  first  place  there  was  somewhat  more  formal- 
ity in  the  proceedings  than  we  have  now.  The  main 
business  was  approached  with  careful  circumspection 
and  due  regard  for  the  importance  of  the  subject. 
The  first  day  was  devoted  to  an  introductory  address 
by  the  president,  which  is  still  preserved  in  the  college 
archives.  It  was  an  elaborate  and  learned  discourse, 
touching  on  questions  of  history,  ethnology,  philology 
and  general  education.  Then  followed  the  professors 
in  turn,  on  successive  days,  each  with  an  introductory 
in  his  own  department ;  so  that  on  the  whole  an  entire 
week  was  occupied  with  preliminary  medical  literature. 
But  once  started  on  their  four  months'  course,  the  lect- 
urers pursued  their  work  with  industry  and  zeal.  It 
appears  from  the  programme  for  1808  that  five  lect- 
ures were  given  in  the  College  every  day.  Some  of 
the  professors  lectured  four  times  a  week,  and  others 
daily  throughout  the  session.  Certainly,  neither  teach- 
ers nor  pupils  could  have  had  much  time  to  waste. 

The  Robinson  street  building  was  one  hired  for 
immediate  use,  and  at  the  end  of  the  second  year  the 
College  was  removed  to  Magazine  street.  This  name 
is  also  unfamiliar  to  our  ears,  and  is  no  longer  found 
on  the  city  map.  It  extended  eastward  from  a  point 
in  Broadway,  opposite  the  grounds  of  the  Hospital. 
Some  years  later  it  was  joined  with  the  upper  end  of 
Pearl  street,  and  changed  its  name  accordingly.  The 
house  occupied  by  the  College  was  on  the  south  side 
of  the  street,  near  Broadway,  and  corresponded  with 
the  present  number  553  Pearl  street. 


lO  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

This  was  the  history  of  the  institution  for  the  first 
few  years  of  its  existence.  During  that  time  it  num- 
bered in  its  facuhy  several  members  of  marked  char- 
acter and  ability. 

Foremost  among  these  was  Nicholas  Romayne, 
the  most  active  man  in  the  organization  of  the  College 
and  its  first  president.  He  obtained  its  charter  from 
the  Regents  of  the  university  ;  he  pledged  his  per- 
sonal credit  to  provide  it  with  funds  ;  and  he  delivered 
for  three  years  the  lectures  on  the  Institutes  of  Medi- 
cine. He  was  a  man  of  large  stature,  but  easy  and 
graceful  motion  ;  of  vigorous  and  cultivated  mind,  ac- 
tive ambition  and  persistent  energy ;  and  of  a  disposi- 
tion always  ready  to  accept  the  responsibilities  of  the 
occasion.  If  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons 
can  be  said  to  have  been  established  by  the  special 
exertion  and  influence  of  any  one  man,  its  founder 
was  undoubtedly  Nicholas  Romayne. 

Equally  notable  was  Dr.  Samuel  L.  Mitchill, 
vice  president  of  the  College,  senator  of  the  United 
States,  professor  of  Chemistry  and  Natural  History ; 
a  man  of  varied  accomplishments,  versatile  talent  and 
wide  reputation.  According  to  his  biographers.  Dr. 
Mitchill  was  a  kind  of  human  dictionary,  who  could 
be  consulted  on  any  question  of  science,  history  or 
politics.  He  could  discourse  in  turn  on  a  Babylonian 
brick,  meteoric  stones,  the  theory  of  chemical  combi- 
nation, the  construction  of  a  windmill,  the  fishes  of 
North  America,  or  the  geology  of  Niagara  Falls. 
He  obtained  from  Congress  the  appropriation  for  the 


OF  THE   COLLEGE.  II 

defences  of  New  York  harbor ;  he  aided  DeWitt 
Clinton  in  his  project  for  the  Erie  canal,  and  was  the 
orator  of  the  day  at  the  ceremony  of  its  inauguration ; 
he  believed  in  Robert  Fulton's  idea  of  steam  naviga- 
tion, and  went  on  the  trial  trip  of  his  first  steamboat 
to  Albany.  Disinterested,  patriotic,  engaging  and 
communicative,  he  was  an  influential  character  in  the 
creation  and  development  of  American  science. 

The  next  period  of  the  college  history  opens  in 
1 8 14,  when  the  medical  faculty  of  Columbia  College 
became  amalgamated  with  the  College  of  Physicians 
and  Surgeons.  It  had  been  thought  desirable  for 
some  years  that  both  sets  of  professors  should  be 
united  in  a  single  body.  It  was  already  evident  that 
the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  had  in  it  the 
elements  of  success ;  and  it  received  a  new  accession 
of  strength  from  the  consolidation  of  the  two  faculties 
under  its  sole  direction.  Nearly  fifty  years  afterward 
it  was  formally  adopted  as  the  Medical  Department  of 
Columbia  College. 

By  this  time  the  College  had  again  changed  its 
location  to  a  more  commodious  building  at  Number 
3  Barclay  street.  This  was  originally  a  brick  store- 
house, altered  and  repaired  to  serve  as  a  medical  col- 
lege. It  was  three  stories  in  height,  with  a  terminal 
balustrade  and  a  cupola,  surmounted  by  a  statue  of 
Apollo,  to  indicate  the  scientific  and  medical  charac- 
ter of  the  institution.  It  was  afterward  enlarged  and 
remodelled,  to  provide  for  the  increasing  numbers  in 
attendance. 


12  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

The  most  prominent  man  at  that  time,  in  the  af- 
fairs of  the  College,  was  David  Hosack.  He  had 
been  mainly  instrumental  in  bringing  into  the  faculty 
the  former  professors  of  Columbia  College.  He  was 
in  the  prime  of  life  and  distinguished  as  a  practitioner. 
His  ardent  temperament  and  undoubting  self-reliance 
led  him  to  the  front  in  many  controversial  discussions  ; 
and  his  views  were  always  maintained  with  force  and 
ability.  He  was  especially  popular  as  a  teacher.  His 
lecture  hour  is  said  to  have  been  awaited  by  all  with 
eager  expectation.  His  sonorous  voice  and  impres- 
sive manner,  and  the  changing  expression  of  his  face, 
gestures  and  utterance,  held  the  attention  of  his  class, 
and  gave  them  a  dramatic  entertainment  rather  than 
the  didactic  monotony  of  a  lecture.  He  was  extensive- 
ly known  beyond  the  limits  of  the  profession,  and  was 
a  marked  celebrity  in  the  social  and  literary  circles  of 
his  day. 

But  notwithstanding  this  apparent  prosperity,  there 
were  already  in  the  College  causes  of  disturbance, 
which  were  destined  before  long  to  threaten  it  with 
disaster.  The  trouble  began  with  complaints  from 
the  Medical  Society  in  regard  to  the  policy  and  oper- 
ation of  the  College.  The  complaints  were  met  with 
replies  and  counter  charges.  There  were  committees 
of  investigation,  hearings  before  the  Board  of  Regents, 
and  acrimonious  articles  in  the  daily  press ;  until  the 
dispute  had  involved,  on  one  side  or  the  other,  nearly 
every  medical  man  in  the  city  and  not  a  few  in  other 
parts  of  the  State.     At  that  time  the  element  of  per- 


OF  THE   COLLEGE.  1 3 

sonality  entered  largely  Into  all  discussions  of  a  public 
nature  ;  and  there  Is  evidence  that  It  had  Its  share  in 
the  college  controversy.     The  members  of  the  medi- 
cal society,  not  connected  with  the  College,  were  dis- 
satisfied with  Its  management  by  the  faculty.     They 
declared  that  this  small  body  of  men,  whose  talents 
and  capacity  they  freely  acknowledged,  had   formed 
among  themselves  a  kind  of   *'  learned  aristocracy," 
and  disregarded  too  plainly  the  claims  and  opinions  of 
the  profession ;   and  that  they  had  repeatedly  violated 
the  laws  and  ordinances  of  the  Regents.     The  pro- 
fessors maintained  that  they  had  always  acted  for  the 
interest  of  the  College  and  according  to  law  ;  and  that 
the  charges  against  them   were  only  the  expression 
of  disappointed  rivalry.      Some  of  the  opponents   of 
the  faculty  were  then  Incorporated  Into  the  Board  of 
Trustees  ;  and  the  divergence  of  opinion  became  more 
irreconcilable  than  ever.     It  reached  a  crisis  in   1826; 
when  the  professors  resigned  In  a  body,  and  organized 
a  rival  establishment  under  the  name  of  the  Rutgers 
Medical  College.     The  partisan  spirit,  created  by  these 
events.  Influenced  all  the  adherents  of  the  two  institu- 
tions ;  and,  like  Rome  and  Carthage,  each  believed 
that  it  could  live  only  by  the  destruction  of  the  other. 
But  professors  who  resign  from  a  medical  school, 
in  order  to  see  It  languish  and  die  when  deprived  of 
their  superior  talents,   seldom  find  the  experiment  a 
success.     It  is  apt  to  turn  out  that  there  are  others 
who  are  able  to  fill  the  chairs  they  have  left,  and  who 
can  still  maintain  the  credit  and  prosperity  of  the  insti- 


14  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

tution.  That  is  what  happened  in  the  present  case. 
The  Regents  appointed  for  the  College  of  Physicians 
and  Surgeons  a  new  corps  of  professors,  whose  names 
are  still  honored  at  the  present  day ;  and  of  whom 
three  became  afterward  presidents  of  the  institution. 
The  rival  college  had  an  existence  of  only  four  annual 
sessions. 

For  the  next  ten  years  the  College  of  Physicians 
and  Surgeons  was  beset  with  difficulties.  It  had  ex- 
perienced a  revolution  which  restored  its  internal  har- 
mony, but  at  dangerous  cost  of  time  and  means.  Its 
resources  were  at  a  low  ebb.  Its  building  was  in  bad 
condition.  It  had  but  a  scanty  supply  of  apparatus 
and  material ;  and  it  was  subject  to  pecuniary  claims, 
urgently  pressed  by  suits  at  law,  which  threatened  the 
compulsory  sale  of  its  land  and  building. 

But  the  new  professors  were  equal  to  the  emer- 
gency. They  made  every  effort  to  restore  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  College.  They  husbanded  its  resources 
by  a  judicious  economy  ;  and  they  demonstrated  their 
ability  as  teachers  by  persevering  attention  to  the 
duties  of  their  chairs.  By  this  means  the  institution 
was  gradually  relieved  of  its  embarrassments  and  freed 
from  the  annoyance  of  professional  opposition.  Its 
vitality  was  tested  and  strengthened  by  the  trials  it 
endured,  and  it  gained  at  last  the  permanent  respect 
of  its  opponents  as  well  as  its  friends. 

The  next  event  of  importance  was  in  1837,  when 
the  College  removed  to  Crosby  street,  about  one  mile 
farther  up  town.     The  new  building  was  on  the  east 


OF  THE   COLLEGE.  1 5 

side  of  the  street,  and  was  known  as  Number  6"].  It 
was  considered  greatly  superior  to  the  former  structure, 
as,  beside  being  more  spacious,  it  was  lighted  with 
gas  and  supplied  with  Croton  water ;  neither  of  which 
conveniencies  existed  in  the  Barclay  street  building. 
It  was  occupied  for  nearly  twenty  years. 

The  time  during  which  the  College  remained  in 
Crosby  street  was  one  of  substantial  progress  in  repu- 
tation and  prosperity.  As  compared  with  the  previous 
ten  years,  its  average  attendance  of  students  increased 
nearly  fifty  per  cent.  The  traces  of  antagonism  in  va- 
rious quarters,  the  legacy  of  its  earlier  turmoils  and 
dissensions,  disappeared  before  the  growing  popu- 
larity of  its  teachers  and  the  united  support  of  its  offi- 
cers and  trustees.  This  opened  for  the  College  a  new 
prospect,  and  placed  it  in  a  different  position.  Hitherto 
its  energies  had  been  consumed  in  an  unavoidable 
conflict  with  difficulties.  Now  they  were  employed 
to  enlarge  its  resources  and  increase  its  usefulness. 

This  period  was  marked  by  two  important  im- 
provements in  the  methods  of  teaching.  The  first 
was  the  adoption  and  use  of  material  illustration. 
The  announcement  for  1837  lays  especial  stress  on 
the  facilities  for  practical  anatomy,  and  on  the  means 
of  illustration  in  all  departments  by  specimens,  draw- 
ings, models,  wax  preparations  and  plaster  casts. 
The  collection  in  the  anatomical  museum  was  largely 
increased  and  was  made  the  property  of  the  College  ; 
and  professor  John  B.  Beck  contributed  his  cabinet  of 
materia   medica,  containing  nearly  six  hundred  speci- 


1 6  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

mens.  On  all  sides  a  desire  was  manifested  to  en- 
large the  means  of  instruction  beyond  those  of  a 
strictly  didactic  course.  The  circular  for  1850  an- 
nounces the  purpose  of  the  faculty  to  make  the  in- 
struction "as  demonstrative  and  practical  as  possible," 
and  declares  that  in  this  object  they  are  "■  warmly  sus- 
tained by  the  Trustees  of  the  College." 

The  second  feature  of  improvement  was  the  col- 
lege clinic,  established  in  1841  by  the  sagacity  and 
enterprise  of  Dr.  Willard  Parker.  Dr.  Parker  was 
then  recently  appointed  professor  of  surgery.  He 
had  taken  some  of  his  private  pupils  to  the  Northern 
Dispensary,  to  witness  there  the  methods  of  diagno- 
sis and  treatment.  This  kind  of  instruction  was  found 
so  useful  that  he  determined  to  transfer  it  to  the  Col- 
lege, where  all  might  share  in  its  benefits.  Out  door 
patients  were  accordingly  brought,  from  the  Dispen- 
sary and  elsewhere,  to  the  college  building,  to  be 
examined  and  treated  in  the  presence  of  the  class. 
This  was  the  beginning  of  the  entire  system  of  col- 
lege clinics,  which  have  since  grown  into  such  mag- 
nitude. At  first  they  were  held  once  a  week,  after- 
ward more  frequently.  A  medical  clinic  and  a  clinic 
for  women  were  added  to  the  list.  The  number  of 
patients  multiplied;  and  in  1850,  according  to  the 
circular  for  that  year,  the  clinic  had  "  assumed  a  de- 
gree of  importance  that  could  hardly  have  been  an- 
ticipated at  its  origin."  There  were,  after  that,  three 
clinics  each  week  throughout  the  session. 

The  next  move  of  the  College  was  in  1856,  when  it 


OF  THE   COLLEGE.  1 7 

occupied  the  building  so  familiar  to  all  of  us,  at  Twen- 
ty-third street  and  Fourth  avenue.  There  it  remained 
for  a  little  over  thirty  years ;  and  it  was  during  this 
time  that  it  exhibited,  in  several  respects,  the  most  re- 
markable signs  of  expansion  and  development.  Those 
who  can  look  back  to  the  beginning  of  that  period, 
and  can  compare  the  responsibilities  and  requirements 
of  the  College  then  and  now,  will  be  at  no  loss  to 
understand  why  the  accommodations  and  equipment, 
which  were  ample  thirty  years  ago,  became  at  last  so 
dwarfed  and  insufficient. 

The  first  of  these  changes,  which  took  place  in 
Twenty-third  street,  was  a  great  increase  in  the  col- 
lege clinics,  from  the  growing  importance  of  medical 
specialities.  Beside  an  additional  surgical  clinic,  there 
were  successively  established  a  venereal  clinic,  a  clinic 
for  the  eye  and  ear,  one  for  the  skin,  one  for  children, 
one  for  the  nervous  system,  and  one  for  diseases  of 
the  throat ;  until  the  regular  weekly  list  included  ten 
separate  clinics  in  the  college  building.  Each  of  these 
needed  room  for  the  reception  and  examination  of  pa- 
tients, and  for  the  illustrations  and  apparatus  of  the 
clinical  professor.  The  space  available  for  such  pur- 
poses became  occupied  to  its  utmost;  and  notwith- 
standing every  effort  to  provide  for  their  necessities, 
the  college  clinics  grew  like  a  family  of  children,  and 
filled  to  distention  the  hospitable  mansion  of  their 
birth. 

Another  set  of  requirements  came  with  the  in- 
creased use  of  material  illustration.     What  had  al- 


1 8  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

ready  been  done  in  that  way  showed  the  immense  su- 
periority of  demonstration  and  experiment,  as  a  means 
of  instruction,  over  that  by  mere  verbal  statements.  It 
demands  from  the  teacher  increased  expenditure  of 
time,  labor  and  material ;  but  when  once  tried  it  can 
never  be  abandoned,  because  it  conveys  information  in 
the  most  intelligible  form,  and  fixes  it  at  once  upon  the 
understanding  and  the  memory.  In  the  scientific  de- 
partments it  is  like  the  clinic  in  practical  medicine.  It 
will  be  safe  to  say  that  in  chemistry,  in  anatomy  and 
in  physiology,  the  necessities  for  experimental  and 
demonstrative  illustration  have  become  five  fold  what 
they  were  in  1856.  They  involve  not  only  more  time 
and  care  on  the  part  of  the  teacher;  they  call  for 
greater  space,  multiplied  apparatus  and  numerous  fa- 
cilities, which  were  neither  needed  nor  anticipated  a 
quarter  of  a  century  ago. 

Thirdly  the  college  course  was  extended  over  a 
longer  time  and  embraced  additional  topics.  Origin- 
ally, the  lecture  term  was  four  months  long.  In  1841 
it  was  supplemented  by  Spring  and  Fall  courses,  of 
several  weeks  each,  devoted  to  special  subjects.  A 
few  years  later  it  was  announced  that  in  the  opinion 
of  the  faculty  the  session  of  four  months,  required  by 
law,  was  ''  too  short  even  for  the  regular  course,  and 
much  too  short  to  allow  them  to  enter  into  speciali- 
ties." Lectures  were  accordingly  given  in  the  Fall 
course  by  all  the  professors,  and  the  regular  term  was 
extended  to  four  months  and  a  half.  After  the  re- 
moval to  Twenty-third  street  it  was  again  lengthened 


OF  THE   COLLEGE.  1 9 

to  five  months  ;  and  in  1880  it  absorbed  the  whole  of 
the  subsidiary  courses  and  was  extended  to  seven 
months.  Moreover  the  graduating  examinations  were 
deferred  until  after  the  close  of  the  lectures,  bringing 
the  date  of  Commencement  a  fortnight  later.  Thus 
the  time  spent  in  the  necessary  work  of  an  annual  col- 
lege course  was  finally  not  less  than  seven  and  a  half 
months,  or  nearly  double  its  former  length. 

These  are  among  the  important  changes  which 
occurred  while  the  College  was  in  its  Twenty-third 
street  habitation.  They  developed  so  rapidly  and  to 
such  an  extent  as  to  overshadow  the  more  modest 
growth  of  earlier  years.  But  they  were,  nevertheless, 
its  legitimate  offshoots  ;  and  in  every  instance  thus 
far  mentioned  it  is  plain  that  they  sprang  from  innova- 
tions and  improvements  originated  in  the  Crosby 
street  building. 

But  in  one  respect  a  change  was  accomplished 
which  may  fairly  be  considered  a  recent  growth ;  that 
is  the  establishment  of  laboratories  of  instruction 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Alumni  Association.  This 
scheme  embodies  the  most  distinctive  feature  of  mod- 
ern medical  teaching.  It  is  a  logical  sequence  of  the 
admitted  superiority  of  the  method  by  demonstration. 
If  it  be  better  to  show  a  student  how  a  thing  is  done 
than  to  tell  him  about  it,  surely  it  must  be  better  still 
to  make  him  do  it  himself.  The  man  who,  under 
proper  direction,  has  separated  and  examined  the  con- 
stituents of  the  blood,  or  prepared  for  the  microscope 
the  wonderful  spectacle  of  the  capillary  circulation,  or 


20  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

tested  the  electric  reaction  of  nerve  and  muscle,  has 
advanced  beyond  the  condition  of  simple  pupilage.  He 
can  then  appreciate  the  value  of  his  instruction,  and  he 
has  gained  the  capacity  for  future  progress  by  himself. 
These  are  the  objects,  and  others  like  them,  aimed 
at  by  the  Physiological  and  Pathological  Laboratory 
of  the  Alumni  Association.  Nine  years  ago  the  As- 
sociation appropriated  a  fund  for  the  equipment  and 
partial  support  of  a  laboratory  of  instruction,  on  a 
plan  proposed  by  the  present  professor  of  Pathology 
and  Practical  Medicine.  He  gave  to  the  enterprise 
his  personal  care  and  his  financial  aid ;  and  in  his 
three-fold  capacity,  as  director  and  patron  of  the 
laboratory,  member  of  the  faculty,  and  member  of  the 
alumni  association,  he  was  unremitting  in  his  en- 
deavors for  its  success.  During  the  last  few  years 
the  laboratory  has  been  carried  on  at  an  annual  ex- 
penditure of  rather  more  than  Five  Thousand  dollars  ; 
and  the  number  of  students  resorting  to  it  has  in- 
creased from  thirty  or  forty  to  over  a  hundred.  In 
1885  the  director  announced  that  its  resources  in  the 
way  of  space  were  exhausted,  more  students  being  in 
attendance  than  could  fairly  be  accommodated.  In 
the  following  year  additional  courses  were  established 
for  May  and  June  ;  and  it  appeared  that  the  number 
of  students  attending  them  was  "limited  only  by  the 
seating  capacity  of  the  laboratory."  The  Laboratory 
Department,  like  the  college  clinics,  outgrew  its  ac- 
commodations, and  felt  the  restraint  of  its  narrow 
quarters  in  the  Twenty-third  street  building. 


OF  THE   COLLEGE.  21 

This  was  the  condition  of  the  College  and  its  re- 
sources, when  it  received  the  generous  aid  of  a  large- 
minded  benefactor.  Mr.  William  H.  Vanderbilt  had 
long  been  known  as  a  man  of  business  capacity,  con- 
servative ideas  and  liberal  disposition.  His  inherited 
wealth  he  had  increased  by  his  own  energy  and  judg- 
ment in  affairs.  With  no  taste  for  publicity  or  osten- 
tation, he  found  recreation  and  enjoyment  in  the  best 
products  of  the  farm,  the  training  stable,  and  the 
studio.  He  had  felt  the  sustaining  care  of  the  heal- 
ing art,  as  beneficent  in  the  alleviation  of  disease  as 
in  its  cure ;  and  he  had  the  far-seeing  desire  to  assist 
in  its  development.  He  knew  that  better  facilities  for 
medical  education  must  hereafter  add  to  the  comfort 
and  diminish  the  suffering  of  rich  and  poor  alike. 
He  appreciated  the  aims  and  methods  of  the  College 
of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  ;  and  he  believed  in  the 
value  of  its  traditions  and  experience,  the  priceless  ac- 
cumulation of  more  than  three  quarters  of  a  century. 
He  therefore  entrusted  to  this  institution  the  means  of 
further  enlargement,  to  make  it  a  more  effective  in- 
strument for  the  final  benefit  of  all.  On  the  seven- 
teenth of  October,  1884,  he  conveyed  to  the  College 
a  deed  of  gift  for  this  land,  and  a  fund  for  the  erection 
upon  it  of  suitable  buildings. 

It  had  long  been  evident  that  the  College  could 
not  carry  out  the  needed  improvements  in  its  old  lo- 
cation. It  required,  above  all,  more  space  for  its 
various  departments.  Furthermore,  experience  had 
shown  that  it  would  not  be  enough  to  provide  for  the 


22  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

immediate  wants  of  the  present.  The  future  will 
surely  bring  with  it  additional  demands,  which  cannot 
even  be  guessed  at  now ;  and  it  would  be  only  ordi- 
nary prudence  to  leave  room  for  the  unknown  require- 
ments of  the  years  to  come.  For  that  reason  the 
present  locality  was  selected  for  the  college  grounds, 
embracing  rather  more  than  an  acre  and  a  half;  and 
the  building  in  which  we  are  assembled  contains 
offices,  lecture  rooms,  study  and  recitation  rooms,  mu- 
seums and  laboratories,  far  more  complete  and  ample 
than  the  College  has  ever  heretofore  possessed. 

But  the  friendly  donor  of  this  new  edifice  was  not 
destined  to  witness  its  completion.  On  the  eighth  of 
December,  1885,  little  more  than  a  year  from  the  date 
of  his  benefaction,  while  in  the  apparent  enjoyment  of 
health  and  vigor,  he  was  stricken  down  by  an  over- 
whelming cerebral  attack,  and  in  a  few  moments  was 
no  longer  among  the  living.  For  the  family  and 
friends  of  the  deceased,  so  sudden  a  demise  must  al- 
ways be  premature.  But  for  the  man  himself,  it  may 
be  considered  as  the  happy  and  painless  termination 
of  a  prosperous  and  useful  career.  It  puts  an  end  to 
all  unfounded  misconceptions,  and  obliterates  forever 
the  antagonisms  of  business  rivalry.  In  this  instance 
it  made  a  remarkable  impression.  It  left  in  strong 
relief  the  many-sided  character  of  the  man,  who  could 
control  with  success  the  largest  financial  interests, 
and  could  feel  for  the  misfortunes  of  our  honored  and 
departed  General ;  whose  wide  sympathies  embraced 
the  most  varied  objects  of  private  enterprise  or  public 


OF  THE   COLLEGE.  23 

utility ;  and  who  was  equally  ready  to  transport  from 
Egypt  the  sculptured  monument  of  an  antique  civili- 
zation, or  to  endow  at  home  a  modern  school  of 
scientific  and  practical  medicine. 

The  spirit  of  his  work  lived  after  him.  The  mem- 
bers of  his  family  saw  the  far-reaching  benevolence  of 
his  plan,  and  extended  it  in  additional  directions.  In 
January,  1886,  his  son-in-law  and  his  daughter,  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Sloane,  made  proposals  for  the  erection  and 
endowment,  on  the  college  grounds,  of  a  lying-in  asy- 
lum, to  be  known  as  the  "Sloane  Maternity  Hospital 
of  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons ; "  and  in 
April  of  the  same  year,  the  four  sons  of  Mr.  Vander- 
bilt  created  a  fund  for  the  erection  and  maintenance, 
also  on  the  college  grounds,  of  a  great  dispensary,  as 
a  special  memorial  to  their  father,  under  the  name  of 
the  "Vanderbilt  Clinic  of  the  College  of  Physicians 
and  Surgeons."  Both  these  establishments  are  nearly 
completed,  and  will  soon  be  in  operation.  They  pro- 
vide relief  for  the  needy  and  suffering,  and  clinical  in- 
struction for  students  of  medicine  ;  one  of  them  in 
the  whole  field  of  general  and  special  diseases  and 
injuries,  the  other  in  a  department  which  appeals  to 
the  most  sensitive  element  of  human  nature,  and  which 
requires  in  the  practitioner  the  most  intelligent  and 
self-relying  skill. 

It  is  impossible  to  overestimate  the  value  of  these 
institutions,  either  for  the  immediate  relief  of  suffering 
humanity,  or  for  the  instruction  of  future  medical  prac- 
titioners.    Everything   which   conduces   to  the   com- 


24      HISTORICAL   SKETCH  OF  THE   COLLEGE. 

pleteness  of  their  education  will  inevitably  have  its  ef- 
fect in  the  more  intelligent  and  successful  treatment  of 
their  patients  ;  and  the  practical  benefits  of  the  Sloane 
Maternity  and  the  Vanderbilt  Clinic  will  thus  be  ex- 
tended in  the  future  to  many  who  never  visited  them, 
and  who  perhaps  will  never  know  to  whom  their  in- 
debtedness belongs. 

The  present  position  of  the  College  of  Physicians 
and  Surgeons  is  one  of  honor  and  responsibility.  Its 
eightieth  birthday  finds  it  more  vigorous  and  flourish- 
ing than  ever.  Since  1807  it  has  survived  five  other 
medical  colleges  in  the  city  and  State  of  New  York ; 
and  throughout  the  country  it  has  witnessed,  during 
that  time,  the  birth,  maturity  and  decease  of  forty-one 
similar  institutions.  It  has  passed  successfully  through 
the  perils  of  infancy,  the  ailments  of  childhood,  and 
the  struggles  and  contentions  of  its  youth.  It  may 
now  be  considered  as  fairly  equipped  with  the  strength 
and  capacity  of  early  manhood.  Perhaps  its  experi- 
ence and  endeavors  thus  far  have  been  only  a  prepa- 
ration for  its  real  work  in  the  time  to  come.  At  all 
events,  the  opportunities  which  it  now  enjoys  are  in 
the  nature  of  a  trust,  and  impose  upon  it  obligations 
proportionate  to  themselves.  May  it  use  its  enlarged 
resources  with  the  same  judgment  and  fidelity  that  it 
has  shown  heretofore,  and  be  ready  still  to  merit  and 
achieve  success.  Considering  what  the  College  has 
already  done,  we  may  surely  say  that  if  its  future  his- 
tory be  worthy  of  the  past,  its  friends  will  have  no 
cause  to  complain  of  the  result. 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS 

BY 

WILLIAM  H.  DRAPER,  M.D. 

Mr.  President,  Trustees,  Faculty  and  Alumni  of 
THE  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  : 

This  new  building  with  its  complete  equipment 
can  suggest  nothing  to  the  Alumni,  and  to  those  who 
have  been  the  officiating  priests  in  the  ancient  taber- 
nacles of  this  College,  so  much  as  a  resurrection,  and 
it  seems  proper  at  this  time  to  set  forth  what  the  spirit 
is,  that  animated  the  coils  that  have  been  shuffled  off, 
and  what  it  may  be  expected  to  accomplish  for  the 
profession  and  the  good  of  mankind  through  this  new 
and  glorious  body  with  which  it  has  been  endowed. 

It  is  a  melancholy  but  indubitable  fact,  that  the 
standard  of  medical  education  in  this  country  is  far 
below  that  of  England  and  the  continent  of  Europe. 
The  great  wave  of  enthusiasm  for  popular  instruction 
seems  to  have  blinded  the  public  sense  to  the  neces- 
sity of  higher  education,  so  that  in  all  the  learned  pro- 
fessions, and  especially  in  that  of  medicine,  which 
above  all  others  should  combine  general  culture  with 
technical  knowledge,  there  has  been,  and  is,  in  the 
country  at  large,  a  degree  of  mediocrity  and  a  shal- 
lowness of  spirit  which  it  is  impossible  to  deny  or 
conceal. 


26  DR.   WILLIAM  H.   DRAPERS 

In  England,  and  on  the  European  continent  rich 
endowments  and  government  subsidies,  have  always 
secured  a  class  of  highly  educated  men  who  have  led 
the  van,  who  have  received  universal  recognition  as 
leaders,  and  who  have  so  leavened  the  mass  of  the 
profession  by  lifting  those  below  them  to  a  higher 
plane,  that  the  general  average  of  scientific  attain- 
ment, in  the  medical  profession  especially,  is  con- 
stantly and  inevitably  advancing.  The  same  thing  of 
course  is  occurring  in  this  country  in  the  larger  cities, 
but  more  slowly,  and  mainly  because  of  the  absence 
of  the  conditions  to  which  I  have  alluded.  Our  gov- 
ernment takes  no  hand  in  the  education  of  doctors, 
though  good  reasons  might  be  assigned  why  it  should 
do  so  :  "  Salus  populi  suprema  lex"  is  a  sound  maxim, 
and  ought  to  justify  the  protection  of  the  community 
against  incompetent  doctors  by  helping  to  supply 
good  ones,  as  much  as  it  justifies  compulsory  vaccina- 
tion. It  is  true  that  Congress  has  founded  and  main- 
tains with  liberal  support  a  medical  museum  and 
library,  and  if  it  may  do  this,  why  should  it  not  estab- 
lish laboratories  for  the  encouragement  of  the  highest 
cultivation  of  physiology  and  pathology :  and  if  it  is 
right  for  the  state  governments  to  lavish  money  in 
large  sums  to  give  free  collegiate  education  to  young 
men  and  women,  why,  we  might  ask,  should  not  pub- 
lic money  be  spent  in  contributing  to  the  public  weal 
by  the  establishment  and  support  of  technical  schools. 

Happily,  however,  for  the  cause  of  education  in 
this  country  the  signs  of  an  awakening  of  the  public 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  27 

intelligence  to  its  present  defects  are  beginning  to 
show  themselves.  The  golden  stream  of  private 
bounty  has  long  flowed  into  every  channel  of  relief  for 
the  mitigation  of  human  misery,  now  it  is  more 
often  turned  towards  the  enlargement  and  perfection 
of  human  knowledge.  Whereas,  formerly,  sympathy 
for  the  sufferings  of  mankind  has  never  failed  to  yield 
a  quick  response  to  the  needs  of  hospitals  and  asy- 
lums, now  a  broader  and  deeper  comprehension  of 
the  sources  of  disease  has  begun  to  turn  the  current 
of  accumulated  wealth  towards  the  encouragement 
and  dissemination  of  learning  that  increases  the  sum 
of  health  and  controls  the  consequences  of  inevitable 
ills. 

The  truth  of  this  statement  in  its  application  to 
medical  education,  is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  in  sev- 
eral of  the  larger  cities  the  medical  schools  are  no 
longer  solely  dependent  for  their  maintenance,  as  they 
were  formerly,  upon  the  scanty  fees  of  their  pupils; 
the  student  of  medicine  of  to-day,  whether  he  be  ani- 
mated by  a  thirst  for  knowledge,  or  by  a  desire  to  ac- 
quire the  art  of  healing  as  a  means  of  livelihood,  has 
no  longer  to  content  himself  with  the  meagre  facilities 
which  are  afforded  by  the  private  enterprise  of  self-con- 
stituted professors.  The  public  ear,  so  long  deaf  to 
any  other  appeals  of  doctors  than  those  which  related 
to  hospitals  and  dispensaries,  seems  now  to  be  open- 
ing to  the  earnest  entreaties  of  the  doctors  themselves 
for  more  light  to  guide  them  in  their  work  of  mercy. 

This  is  not  the  time  nor  the  occasion  to  discuss  the 


28  DR.   WILLIAM  H.   DEAFER' S 

question  whether  the  problem  of  elevating  the  stand- 
ard of  medical  education  in  this  country  is  likely  to  be 
best  and  most  quickly  solved  by  government  patron- 
age, or  by  the  bounty  of  private  wealth,  but  there  is 
one  conspicuous  benefit  which  I  think  experience  al- 
ready shows  to  be  the  result  of  dependence  on  private 
benefactions,  and  it  is  this :  it  undoubtedly  stimulates 
in  the  profession  itself  an  unselfish  devotion  to  its  work, 
an  earnest  and  insatiable  desire  to  advance  its  stand- 
ards, and  an  aspiration  towards  higher  achievements. 

It  is,  moreover,  safe  to  say,  that,  in  this  country  at 
least,  there  is  scarcely  anything  which  a  government 
undertakes,  outside  of  its  essential  duties,  as  the  con- 
servator of  law  and  order,  that  has  not  been  proved 
to  be  more  efficiently  accomplished  by  private  enter- 
prise, and  it  remains  to  be  seen,  through  the  experi- 
ments which  are  being  made  in  higher  education  in 
this  country,  whether  in  the  next  fifty  years  the  results 
of  individual  contributions  to  the  encouragement  of 
science  and  art  will  not  equal  those  of  countries  in 
which  all  the  people  pay  tribute  to  their  maintenance. 
In  the  present  state  of  public  intelligence  in  these 
United  States  in  matters  relating  to  higher  education  it 
would  certainly  seem  safer,  for  the  present,  to  rely  upon 
the  support  of  intelligent  private  beneficence,  than  to 
run  the  risk  of  squandering  public  money  upon  the 
innumerable  schemes  that  would  surely  be  devised  for 
securing  government  bounty. 

I  have  been  led  into  this  train  of  thought  because 
the  history  of  this  institution  shows  clearly  what  may 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  29 

be  regarded  as  the  legitimate  and  inevitable  result  of 
that  spirit  of  devotion  to  a  high  purpose  which  sinks 
the  selfish  in  the  common  weal,  and  which  the  love  of 
knowledge  especially  inspires.  The  spirit  is  sure  to 
secure  the  only  reward  it  asks  for,  encouragement  and 
support.  It  certainly  was  not  for  the  gifts  of  fortune 
that  the  men  who  have  been  teachers  in  this  school  for 
the  last  eighty  years  have  spent  their  energies.  Many 
of  them  labored  simply  for  the  love  of  teaching,  and 
the  majority  of  them  for  meagre  remuneration,  when 
compared  with  the  time  and  training  devoted  to  their 
work.  They  lived  and  died,  laying  up  few  treas- 
ures beyond  the  blessings  of  their  fellow  men,  and 
no  investments  save  those  which  add  to  the  sum  of 
human  knowledge  and  experience.  As  each  genera- 
tion of  teachers  handed  over  its  work  to  younger  and 
stronger  men  it  infused  an  enthusiasm  which  stimulated 
its  successors  to  better  achievements,  and  so  this  col- 
lege has  grown  in  professional  esteem  and  public  con- 
fidence until  now,  without  any  pecuniary  aid,  other 
than  that  furnished  by  its  own  professors  and  its 
Alumni.  But  during  all  these  years  it  has  never  fal- 
tered in  its  good  work,  and  never  lost  faith  in  its  destiny. 
Inadequate  as  its  resources  have  been,  it  has  never,  to 
its  honor  be  it  spoken,  imperilled  its  fair  fame  by  seek- 
ing to  increase  its  revenue  through  depreciating  the 
value  of  its  diploma.  Its  policy  has  always  been  to 
narrow  the  gate  by  which  its  graduates  have  passed 
from  its  halls,  and  lately,  as  you  have  heard,  it  has  de- 
termined to  narrow  considerably  its  portal  of  entrance. 


so  DR.    WILLIAM  H.   DRAPERS 

And  now  what  is  the  reward  of  this  abiding  de- 
termination on  the  part  of  the  Faculty,  Trustees 
and  Alumni  to  make  this  College  of  Physicians  and 
Surgeons  keep  abreast  with  the  advancing  demands 
of  medical  science,  and  more  and  more  worthy  of  the 
confidence  of  the  profession  and  the  public  ?  Is  its 
reward  Mr.  Vanderbilt's  money,  which  has  founded 
these  spacious  halls  and  well  equipped  laboratories  ? 
It  is  more  than  this — it  is  that  the  work  which  has 
been  done  all  over  the  world  in  the  service  of  human- 
ity by  scientific  medicine  enlightened  the  mind  and 
moved  the  spirit  of  a  masterful  citizen  of  this  metropo- 
lis to  set  an  example  in  the  disposition  of  private 
wealth  so  conspicuous  as  to  command  universal  atten- 
tion. Had  Mr.  Vanderbilt  built  a  church  to  perpetu- 
ate his  memory  or  propitiate  the  deity,  had  he  en- 
dowed a  hospital  to  commemorate  his  name,  and  se- 
cure for  it,  for  all  time,  the  blessings  of  the  sick  and 
suffering,  he  would  simply  have  done  what  thousands 
have  done  before  him.  Such  dispositions  of  wealth 
as  these  spring  from  the  emotional  side  of  man's  nat- 
ure. They  are  creditable  to  our  humanity,  but  they 
are  not  the  product  of  the  highest  development  of  our 
intelligence.  They  will  always  be  needful  to  antago- 
nize the  ills  and  misfortunes  to  which  flesh  is  heir,  but 
they  are  powerless  to  dry  up  the  springs  from  which 
many  of  them  flow.  That  Mr.  Vanderbilt  in  choosing 
an  object  for  his  bounty  touched  the  true  pole  of 
human  benevolence,  is  evident  from  a  pregnant  sen- 
tence in  his  letter  to  the  President  of  the  College  an- 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  3 1 

nouncing  his  intention.  He  said: — "The  health, 
comfort  and  lives  of  the  whole  community  are  so  de- 
pendent upon  skilled  physicians  that  no  profession  re- 
quires more  care  in  the  preparation  of  its  practition- 
ers." 

This  betrays  the  essential  merit  of  our  benefactor's 
gift.  His  eyes  were  opened,  partly,  in  all  probability 
by  the  personal  benefit  of  scientific  guidance  in  the 
care  of  his  own  health,  and  partly  by  an  intelligent 
observation  and  reflection  upon  the  amelioration  of 
human  suffering,  through  the  arts  of  medicine.  This 
is  the  reward  which  not  alone  this  College  but  all 
schools  of  medicine  throughout  the  world  have  reaped 
from  his  bounty.  It  is  for  this  that  this  College  and 
all  mankind  should  be  grateful,  not  so  much  for  what 
has  been  given,  as  for  the  spirit  which  dictated  the 
gift. 

Measured  by  the  needs  of  the  general  object  Mr. 
Vanderbilt  sought  to  benefit,  his  benefaction  is  but 
a  drop  in  the  bucket;  estimated  by  the  force  of  its 
example  it  is  the  tapping  of  a  spring  of  human  benev- 
olence that  will  help  to  refresh  for  all  time  many 
waste  places  of  ignorance  and  superstition. 

In  taking  this  broader  view  of  the  significance  ot 
Mr.  Vanderbilt's  gift  to  this  College,  as  being  the  one 
which  does  highest  honor  to  his  memory,  and  which 
is  being  already  verified,  since  his  death,  by  the 
generous  contributions  of  his  family  towards  the  en- 
largement and  completion  of  his  purpose,  I  am  not 
unmindful  of  our  special  obligations  to  him  for  making 


32  DR.   WILLIAM  H.   DRAPERS 

this  College  the  object  of  his  wise  intention,  and  we 
who  have  lived  to  see  this  day  of  jubilee  in  the  history 
of  the  College,  may  well  be  excused  for  the  exuber- 
ance of  our  joy  at  this  sudden  and  unexpected  fruition 
of  our  fondest  hopes. 

To  those  of  us  who  remember  the  shabby  tene- 
ment in  Crosby  street,  the  removal  to  what  seemed, 
by  contrast,  the  palatial  building  in  23d  street,  was 
the  occasion  of  great  rejoicing.  But  what  shall  we 
say  of  the  change  we  make  to-day.  It  is  not  so  much 
a  removal,"  as  a  translation,  and  the  setting  up  of  a 
new  kingdom.  To  say  that  we  rejoice  is  but  a  feeble 
expression  of  the  emotion  that  must  fill  the  souls  of 
those  who  have  lived  to  know  and  suffer  the  res  an- 
gustce  of  our  former  habitations. 

Would  that  I  could  summon  to  these  halls  the 
spirits  of  that  goodly  company  of  distinguished  pro- 
fessors whose  labors  conspired  to  bring  forth  this  off- 
spring of  their  heart's  desire.  Would  that  the  shades 
of  Hosack,  Mitchill,  Romayne,  Beck,  Torrey,  Smith, 
Bartlett,  Watts,  Oilman,  Parker,  Clark  and  all  the 
honored  line  of  illustrious  teachers,  whose  names  de- 
serve to  be  echoed  in  these  halls  to-day,  hovered 
about  us  at  this  moment,  and  shared  the  exultation  of 
this  hour.  Would  that  they  could  go  with  us  as  we 
leave  'this  hall  and  vie:w,  as  they  might  in  this  build- 
ing, the  workshop  of  scientific  medicine.  Would  that 
they  could  realize  how  rapidly  the  old  methods  of  line 
upon  line,  and  precept  upon  precept,  are  being  laid 
aside  for  the  teaching  by  observation  and  experiment. 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  ZZ 

How  in  the  department  of  anatomy  the  very  bones 
have  become  eloquent,  and  the  student  no  longer 
pursues  his  dissections  in  a  charnel  house,  stifled  by 
foul  odors  and  horrified  by  unseemly  sights,  but  finds 
himself  cheered  in  his  work  by  pure  air  and  the 
blaze  of  day.  How  art  and  ingenuity  in  demonstra- 
tion have  taken  the  place  of  text  books,  and  the  fabric 
of  the  human  body  in  its  minutest  and  most  delicate 
structures  has  been  unfolded  to  the  eye.  How  in  the 
teaching  of  physiology,  description  of  the  functions  of 
living  bodies  are  no  longer  preached  like  sermons 
from  texts,  to  dull  and  sleepy  congregations,  but  are 
made  to  manifest  themselves  to  the  understanding  by 
the  aid  of  ingenious  mechanism  and  merciful  vivisec- 
tions :  how  in  the  department  of  chemistry  the  stu- 
dent no  longer  listens  to  what  he  can  read  in  books, 
or  witnesses  experiments  which  only  interest  without 
instructing  him,  but  works  himself  in  a  well  furnished 
laboratory  and  grasps  where  before  he  only  groped. 
We  would  then  love  to  show  the  spirits  of  these  re- 
vered teachers  of  former  days,  how  in  the  practical 
branches  the  substitution  of  demonstrative  for  didactic 
instruction  has  revolutionized  the  methods  of  their 
time.  How  through  an  allied  current  of  the  same  in- 
telligent good  will  which  erected  this  building,  a  Ma- 
ternity Hospital  has  been  provided  on  these  grounds 
where  nature  manifests  her  perfect  work  and  where 
every  student  may  learn  for  himself,  before  he  re- 
ceives the  diploma  of  this  college,  what  experience 
only    can   teach.      And  finally   we  would    lead    this 

3 


34  DR'   WILLIAM  H.   DRAPERS 

ghostly  procession  into  the  laboratory  of  pathology ; 
here  we  can  imagine  their  speechless  surprise  as 
they  behold  the  strange  and  elaborate  devices  for 
teaching  the  science  of  disease.  We  can  fancy  them 
endorsing  with  hearty  admiration  all  they  have  seen 
before.  But  how  would  the  jargon  of  bacteriology- 
sound  in  their  ears  ?  How  many  of  them  would 
shake  their  heads  over  the  germ  theory  and  reproach 
us  for  abandoning  the  humours  and  phlogostics  of 
their  day  ?  We  should  pardon  them  if  they  failed  to 
dilate  with  the  correct  emotion  when  they  came  to  the 
department  of  pathology,  but  we  should  none  the  less 
point  to  it  with  pride,  as  the  crowning  glory  of  this 
new  college,  for  here  shines  the  light  that  is  to  illu- 
mine the  mysterious  recesses  of  disease  and  by  its 
revelations  lay  the  foundation  of  rational  medicine. 
The  art  of  to-day  struggles  mainly,  as  it  always  has, 
and  with  more  or  less  success,  with  the  effects  of 
causes,  of  the  nature  of  which  we  are  still  ignorant, 
the  art  of  the  future,  the  dawning  of  which  is  even  now 
visible  will  contend  more  and  more  with  the  influences 
that  determine  disease. 

As  we  part  with  the  spirits  of  those  whom  we 
would  have  share  the  happiness  of  this  hour  we  turn 
to  greet  their  successors,  the  living  exponents  of  the 
lofty  mission  to  which  this  building  is  to-day  conse- 
crated. That  they  are  fit  to  assume  and  worthy  to 
bear  the  responsibilities,  which  these  larger  and  bet- 
ter facilities  for  their  work,  now  devolve  upon  them, 
no  one  can  doubt. 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  35 

It  is  fair  to  say  that  had  it  not  been  for  their  con- 
spicuous fitness  to  receive  it,  this  noble  gift  would 
never  have  been  conferred  upon  them.  May  they  ad- 
minister their  trust  wisely  and  with  the  unselfish  and 
reverent  spirit  which  becomes  the  ministers  of  truth  ; 
so  shall  they  worthily  honor  the  memory  of  their  ben- 
efactor and  merit  the  benediction  of  generations  to 
come. 

The  grateful  duty,  Mr.  President,  has  been  as- 
signed to  me  to  recall  on  this  auspicious  occasion  the 
memory  of  two  of  the  founders  of  this  College  by  pre- 
senting to  the  Board  of  Trustees  on  behalf  of  the  do- 
nors, two  portrait  busts,  one  of  Dr.  David  Hosack  and 
the  other  of  Dr.  Samuel  L.  Mitchill.  The  bust  of  Dr. 
Hosack  is  the  gift  of  his  surviving  daughter  Miss 
Eliza  B.  Hosack ;  that  of  Dr.  Mitchill  is  presented  by 
the  President  of  the  College.  From  the  long  roll  of 
distinguished  teachers  who  have  been  connected  with 
this  institution  it  is  not  likely  that  two  could  have 
been  chosen  whose  fame  and  influence  as  citizens  ot 
this  metropolis  and  as  professors  in  this  College  are 
more  worthy  of  being  perpetuated. 

The  name  of  David  Hosack  is  indissolubly  associ- 
ated with  the  early  history  of  New  York,  as  one  of 
its  most  noted  and  public  spirited  citizens,  and  as  a 
most  eminent  physician ;  honored  at  home  and  abroad 
for  his  learning  and  above  all  for  his  earnest  devotion 
to  the  cause  of  medical  education. 

Dr.  Mitchill,  no  less  than  Dr.  Hosack,  was  identi- 


o 


6  DR.    WILLIAM  H.   DRAPERS 


fied  with  the  foundation  of  this  College  and  the  com- 
bined energy  and  eminent  abilities  of  these  two  men 
are  largely  responsible  for  the  high  character  with 
which  it  entered  upon  its  career.  Could  these  two 
worthy  representatives  of  its  ancestral  fame  behold 
the  present  proportions  and  possibilities  of  the  Col- 
lege of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  they  would  realize 
that  they  builded  better  than  they  knew  when  with 
humble  means,  but  lofty  purpose  they  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  an  institution  which  has  never  ceased  to  feel 
the  force  of  their  inspiration  and  is  to-day  one  of  the 
foremost  medical  colleges  of  the  land. 

I  have  also  the  pleasure  to  present  a  portrait  by 
Eastman  Johnson  of  our  honored  President,  Dr.  John 
C.  Dalton.  This  portrait  hangs  in  the  amphitheatre 
together  with  the  portraits  of  those  Nestors  in  the 
service  of  the  College,  Parker  and  Clark.  It  is  the 
gift  of  one  hundred  of  Dr.  Dalton's  friends  and  former 
pupils.  This  portrait  is  a  precious  possession,  not 
only  for  its  intrinsic  excellence  as  a  work  of  art,  but 
as  a  life-like  presentment  of  one  whose  fame  as  a 
physiologist  and  whose  success  as  a  teacher,  have 
contributed  in  large  measure  to  the  present  distinc- 
tion and  prosperity  of  this  school. 

Finally,  Mr.  President,  I  have  the  honor  to  pre- 
sent to  the  Trustees,  Faculty  and  Alumni  of  this  Col- 
lege a  portrait  bust  in  bronze  of  William  H.  Van- 
DERBiLT.  This  bust  is  the  work  of  the  distinguished 
sculptor  J.  Q.  A.  Ward,  and  the  gift  of  a  number  ot 
members  of  the  Board  of  Trustees. 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  7,7 

One  of  the  last  acts  in  the  life  of  Mr.  Vanderbilt 
was  a  sitting  for  this  portrait  on  the  morning  of  the 
day  he  died ;  and  it  adds  to  the  significance  and  value 
of  the  possession  that  it  reflects,  so  to  speak,  as  one 
of  the  last  thoughts  of  our  lamented  benefactor,  the 
deep  and  earnest  interest  with  which  he  regarded  the 
future  career  of  this  college.  That  his  family  were 
deeply  impressed  by  the  feeling  which  the  incident 
typified  they  have  abundantly  testified  in  their  gener- 
ous development  of  what  they  felt  to  be  their  father's 
final  wish  and  purpose. 

This  bust  occupies  a  position  in  the  main  hall 
where  it  will  command  for  many  long  years  the  grate- 
ful recognition  of  succeeding  generations  of  students 
who  will  enjoy  the  privileges  provided  for  them  by 
the  wise  bounty  of  the  man  it  commemorates. 


The  Sloane  Maternity  Hospital,  at  59th  street  and 
Tenth  Avenue,  and  the  Vanderbilt  Clinic,  at  Tenth 
Avenue  and  60th  street,  were  inaugurated  December 
29th  1887,  with  an  address  delivered  by  Professor  T. 
Gaillard  Thomas,  M.D.,  in  the  lecture  hall  of  the  col- 
lege building. 


ADDRESS 

AT    THE    INAUGURATION    OF    THE 

SLOANE   MATERNITY   HOSPITAL 

AND    OF    THE 

VANDERBILT  CLINIC 

BY 

T.   GAILLARD   THOMAS,  M.D. 

"  Vita  brevis ;  ars  longa."  Man's  life  is  but  a 
span ;  the  life  of  Art  is  long  and  endures  forever  ! 
Generation  after  generation  is  cut  down  and  disap- 
pears like  the  herb  of  the  field  ;  but  Art  with  grand 
and  measured  tread  marches  onward  through  the 
ages  ! 

As  we  meet  here  to-day  to  foster  the  interests  of 
the  noblest  of  the  arts,  so  met  the  men  and  women 
of  ancient  Greece  and  Rome.  Since  then,  they  and 
thousands  who  have  succeeded  them,  have  vanished 
like  a  tale  that  is  told ;  but  the  art  which  they  fos- 
tered lives  now,  as  it  lived  then,  coming  down  to  us 
in  lusty  strength,  in  youthful  vigor,  in  enduring  glory  ! 

What  is  life  for  us  to-day  more  than  it  was  for 
those  a  thousand  years  preceding  us  ?  Have  we 
found  an  antidote  for  its  cares  ;  a  safeguard  against 
its  sorrows  ;  a  preventive  of  its  brevity,  its  hollowness, 
or  its  weird  and  sad  termination  ?     What  is  art  to-day 


40  DR.    T.    GAILLARD   THOMAS' 

contrasted  with  art  as  long  ago  ?  From  an  atom  it 
has  grown  into  a  mountain.  The  story  of  its  growth 
oversteps  the  limits  even  of  imagination  !  He,  who  a 
century  ago  would  have  given  credence  to  the  fairy- 
tale of  the  princess  whose  lover  was  aided  in  his 
search  for  her  by  three  mysterious  men,  the  first  ca- 
pable of  travelling  five  hundred  leagues  in  a  day,  the 
second  of  seeing  thousands  of  miles,  and  the  third  of 
whispering  through  that  distance  into  the  ear  of  the 
person  seen,  would  have  been  regarded  as  a  madman. 
And  yet  to-day  every  one  of  these  apparently  vain 
imaginings  has  been  verified !  Within  a  few  seconds 
the  news  from  far  off  lands  is  written  or  whispered  to 
us ;  within  a  day  hundreds  of  miles  are  traversed 
with  ease  and  certainty  ;  and  the  patient  student  from 
hour  to  hour,  watches  the  heaping  up  upon  the  face 
of  the  moon  of  piles  of  scoriae  by  volcanic  action,  and 
measures  the  depths  of  the  valleys  which  they  create  ! 
A  century  ago  steam  and  electricity  were  unknown ; 
now  they  are  man's  willing  slaves,  destined  to  do  his 
bidding,  as  the  ancients  foreshadowed  when  they  rep- 
resented the  thunderbolt  in  the  hand  of  Jupiter ! 
What  imagination  so  vivid  as  to  foreshadow  the  dis- 
coveries of  the  next  century  !  What  prophet  so 
gifted  or  so  bold,  as  to  foretell  the  triumphs  of  art  as 
yet  undreamed  of,  and  lying  dormant  in  the  womb  of 
time  ! 

Among  the  arts  none  has  more  essentially  changed 
with  time  than  has  that  whose  votaries  are  assembled 
in   this  beautiful  hall  to-day ;  none  is  more  rapidly 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  4 1 

changing  now ;  and  In  the  advance  and  perfection  of 
none  is  society  more  deeply  interested ;  for  truly  has 
it  been  said : 

"  A  good  physician  skilled  our  wounds  to  heal 
Is  more  than  armies  to  the  public  weal !  " 

Medicine  as  an  art  has  existed  since  the  days  of 
Hippocrates,  who  lived  400  years  before  Christ.  Dur- 
ing the  2,200  years  which  have  since  elapsed  little  was 
done  for  its  material  and  decided  advancement  until 
the  beginning  of  the  17th  century.  For  these  more 
than  2,000  years  the  art  lived ;  but  lived  in  intimate 
communion  with  superstition  and  the  most  unqualified 
charlatanism  ;  lived  in  the  musty  tomes  of  priests  and 
shavelings  ;  lived  in  the  brains  of  dreamers  and  theo- 
rists ;  lived  in  the  hands  of  the  herbalist  and  the  bar- 
ber !  But  still  it  lived,  and  in  the  early  part  of  the 
17th  century  it  was  stirred  into  renewed  vigor  by  three 
influences  which  proved  potent  for  good.  Since  that 
time  amends  have  been  made  for  prolonged  torpor  by 
a  rapidity  of  progress  which  must  meet  the  demands 
of  the  most  exacting  critic  ;  and  during  the  last  half 
century  it  may  with  justice  and  without  boastfulness  be 
claimed  that  no  other  science  or  art  has  left  it  behind 
in  the  race  for  advancement ! 

I  just  now  pointed  out  the  influence  which  those 
two  gigantic  factors,  steam  and  electricity,  had  exerted 
upon  the  arts  in  general.  Early  in  the  17th  century 
medicine  felt  a  propulsive  influence,  no  less  decided, 
from  the  establishment  of  inductive  philosophy  by  Fran- 


42  DR.    T.    GAILLARD   THOMAS' 

cis  Bacon  ;  of  the  perfection  and  utilization  of  the  mi- 
croscope ;  and  of  the  discovery  of  the  circulation  of  the 
blood  by  the  great  Englishman,  William  Harvey. 
Archimedes  once  declared  that  if  he  were  only  given  a 
standpoint  for  his  lever  he  could  move  the  world. 
These  three  contributions  furnished  a  tripod  for  the 
support  of  a  lever  which  at  once  moved  medicine  up- 
wards and  onwards. 

And  here  before  I  proceed  further,  let  me  meet  the 
criticism  which  I  feel  sure  that  some  of  my  non-profes- 
sional hearers  will  launch  at  me,  that  the  claim,  which 
I  have  ventured  to  make  for  medicine,  savors  of  boast- 
fulness.  I  here  boldly  and  without  hesitation  declare 
the  belief  that  vaccination  and  the  discovery  of  anaes- 
thesia surpass  in  the  beneficence  of  their  results  even 
steam  and  electricity.  And  as  this  is  true  as  to 
these  major  factors,  so  do  I  claim  that  it  is  so 
as  to  many  minor  ones.  Let  me  in  all  sincerity 
and  truth  ask  you  to-day  these  questions :  Which 
would  you  prefer  to  give  up,  steam  with  all  its 
manifold  advantages,  all  its  blessings,  all  its  in- 
fluences upon  civilization ;  or  to  return  to  the  times 
when  that  loathsome  disease,  small-pox,  would  strike 
a  community  and  pass  over  it  like  a  simoon,  killing 
hundreds  by  a  terrible  death  and  deforming  thousands 
for  life ;  to  the  time  when  a  household  would  be 
stricken  down,  demoralized  and  desolated  ;  and  when 
beauty  was  transformed  into  hideousness  within  a  few 
days  ?  Would  you  rather  give  up  the  charming  re- 
sults of  that  magical  power,  electricity,  with  its  grand 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  43 

achievements  and  its  luxurious  outcome ;  or  return  to 
the  dark  days  when  your  loved  ones,  exposed  of  ne- 
cessity to  the  surgeon's  knife,  would  have  to  suffer 
mortal  agony  for  hour  piled  on  hour ;  when  she  who 
is  dearer  to  you  than  life  itself  had  to  bear  the  agonies 
of  the  primal  curse  in  the  same  degree  as  our  mother 
Eve  ;  and  when  you  yourself,  when  dying  a  slow  death 
of  suffering  would  be  deprived  of  the  sweet  boon  of 
euthanasia  ?  I  do  not  pause  for  a  reply  !  I  know 
that  every  one  of  you,  every  man  in  all  his  selfish- 
ness, every  woman  in  all  her  disinterestedness  of  love, 
will  say  with  me,  "  Perish  steam,  perish  electricity, 
rather  than  that  we  should  go  back  to  those  dark  and 
gloomy  days  of  human  woe  and  human  helpless- 
ness ! " 

If  a  dividing  line  can  anywhere  be  drawn  between 
modern  and  ancient  medicine,  between  medicine  as  a 
pure  art,  and  medicine  as  an  art  guided  by  the  benef- 
icent light  of  science  it  would  fall  about  the  middle  or 
latter  part  of  the  i6th  century;  and  there  can  be  no 
doubt  as  to  the  influence  of  the  three  great  discoveries 
which  I  have  mentioned  in  bringing  about  the  grand 
result.  From  this  time  rapidly  appeared  upon  the 
stage  of  medical  labor,  those  great  students  of  the 
past  who  left  upon  its  literature  an  impress  as  pro- 
found as  that  which  was  left  upon  general  literature 
by  Chaucer,  Shakespeare,  and  Milton ;  I  allude  to 
Vesalius,  Pare  and  Sydenham ;  and  later  to  Boer- 
haave.  Von  Haller,  Morgagni,  Jenner  and  the  Hunt- 
ers.    These  men  labored  at  much  greater  advantage 


44  DR.    T.    GAILLARD   THOMAS' 

than  did  their  predecessors ;  for  their  minds  were 
prepared  for  proper  methods  of  study  by  the  es- 
tabHshment  of  inductive  philosophy ;  their  scope  was 
greatly  increased  by  the  understanding  of  the  cir- 
culation of  the  blood ;  and  their  eyes  were  given 
miraculous  powers  by  the  perfection  of  the  micro- 
scope. Nevertheless  during  the  17th  and  i8th 
centuries  the  art  and  science  of  medicine  stumbled 
painfully  and  slowly  onwards,  hampered  by  man's 
vain  tendency  to  theorising,  constructing  formulse, 
and  establishing  artificial  systems !  Every  great  man 
felt  that  he  must  prove  his  right  to  being  so  con- 
sidered by  propounding  and  sustaining  some  dogma. 
What  an  investigator  thought  out  in  his  closet,  that 
he  saw  at  the  bedside,  and  that  he  strove  to  maintain, 
not  by  demonstration  to  the  senses,  but  by  words,  by 
sonorous  phrases,  by  eloquent  sentences,  and  by 
astute  and  long  drawn  argument.  Read  to-day  the 
writings  of  one  of  the  most  charming  of  medical 
writers,  the  Thomas  Watson  of  the  olden  time,  Syden- 
ham. You  will  find  them  teeming  with  seductive 
argument,  eloquent  appeal,  and  powerful  rhetoric ; 
but  equally  will  you  be  struck  by  want  of  evidence, 
absence  of  appeal  to  the  senses,  and  failure  of  physical 
demonstration.  Abundant  and  pithy  calls  upon  the 
intellect  you  will  find,  but  none  upon  the  sight,  the 
touch,  the  hearing,  and  the  smell !  Does  he  advance 
the  theory  that  carbuncle  is  a  low  grade  of  inflamma- 
tion excited  by  the  introduction  into  the  blood  of 
some  external  malign  influence  ?     If  so  it   is  merely 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  45 

his  own  opinion;  nothing  more.  He  does  not  show 
you  with  the  microscope  the  anthrax  bacillus.  Does 
he  claim  an  altered  renal  action  in  general  dropsy? 
If  so  he  fails  to  coagulate  albumen  in  the  test  tube,  or 
show  you  tube  casts  and  epithelium.  Does  he  main- 
tain that  the  air  vesicles  of  the  lungs  are  filled  with 
plastic  material  during  the  first  stage  of  pneumonia? 
If  he  does  so,  he  lacks  the  power  of  making  you  hear 
the  crepitant  rale  as  a  conclusive  proof  of  his  correct- 
ness. 

As  the  pestilence  which  they  sought  to  circumvent 
was  said  to  walk  "by  darkness,"  so  walked  their 
finely  drawn  and  carefully  woven  theories ;  and  alas 
too  often  walked  they  hand-in-hand  with  the  evil 
against  which  they  were  launched !  During  that 
period  of  mysticism,  of  doubt,  and  of  theory  our  call- 
ing should  in  all  honesty  have  pleaded  guilty  to  the 
scathing  definition  of  a  physician  as  "  a  man  who 
poured  drugs  of  which  he  knew  little  into  bodies  of 
which  he  knew  less." 

And  so  things  went  on  with  medicine  not  from 
bad  to  worse,  for  it  would  have  been  hard  to  find  the 
latter ;  but  from  bad  to  a  very  little  better,  and  thus 
they  continued  to  go  until  the  propitious  dawn  of  the 
19th  century  which  was  heralded  by  the  discovery  of 
vaccination  by  the  immortal  Jenner  ?  As  the  century 
advanced  into  its  latter  half,  our  art  had  done  enough 
to  warrant  it  in  laying  claim  to  the  title  of  "  Demon- 
strative Medicine  "  in  contradistinction  to  that  of  the 
olden  time  which  might  have  been  called  "  Theoreti- 


46  DR.   T.    GAILLARD   THOMAS' 

cal  Medicine."  Men  educated  by  the  influences  which 
I  have  cited  and  by  others  of  a  similar  nature  now 
began  to  make  all  supposition,  all  belief,  all  theory 
subordinate  to  physical  proof;  to  demonstration  to  the 
senses.  They  began  to  study,  not  isolated  in  their 
closets;  but  banded  together  in  hospitals,  in  labora- 
tories, and  in  clinical  rooms.  There,  no  man  ventured 
to  advance  a  view  the  truth  of  which  he  could  not 
maintain  by  evidence.  Diseases  of  the  lungs  and 
heart  were  listened  to,  not  talked  about ;  those  of  the 
deep  structures  of  the  eye  were  looked  at  with  the 
opthalmoscope ;  the  darkness  of  the  larynx  was  dissi- 
pated by  the  laryngoscope  ;  all  canals  were  tunnelled 
for  the  admission  of  light  by  specula ;  and  medical 
chemistry  or  the  microscope  would  pronounce  dog- 
matically as  to  the  nature  of  fluids  and  solids  removed 
from  any  part  of  the  system. 

All  the  nations  of  the  earth  soon  began  to  vie 
with  each  other  in  the  advancement  of  medicine,  freed 
from  mysticism  and  theory,  and  capable  of  proof  and 
of  demonstration.  In  Germany,  in  France,  in  Eng- 
land, in  Russia  and  in  Italy,  laboratories,  hospitals 
and  cliniques  soon  teemed  with  students  eager  to 
learn  what  the  new  era  could  teach,  and  with  devoted 
investigators  equally  eager  to  make  discoveries  and 
to  impart  them.  And  what  is  so  far  the  out-come  ? 
It  is  so  immense,  so  grand,  so  vast  that  the  time  al- 
lotted to  this  address  is  insufficient  for  even  a  rapid 
presentation  of  it !  Let  me  cite  a  few  facts  only. 
The  discovery  of  that  blood  poisoning  called  septi- 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  47 

caemia,  and  of  the  methods  of  avoiding  it  by  Lister  of 
Scotland,  have  robbed  hospital  operations  of  nine- 
tenths  of  their  terrors,  have  already  saved  thousands 
of  lives  and  are  destined  in  the  future  to  give  to  man 
incalculable  results. 

Should  the  noble  efforts  of  the  great  Pasteur  suc- 
ceed in  accompHshing  the  prevention  of  hydrophobia, 
that  success  would  be  entirely  due  to  it ;  should  they 
fail,  what  of  it?  He  has  "struck  a  lead,"  as  miners 
express  it  in  mining,  which  whether  he  live  or  die, 
whether  he  survive  or  perish,  whether  he  succeed  or 
fail,  will  be  followed  up  by  others  to  grand  results  ! 

A  few  years,  a  very  few  years  ago,  the  Lying-in 
or  Maternity  hospitals  of  the  world  were  transformed 
into  charnel  houses  by  that  terror  of  all  lands.  Puer- 
peral Fever.  Now,  in  the  most  insalubrious  parts  of 
Paris,  of  Vienna  and  St.  Petersburgh  there  is  scarcely 
a  mortality  of  3  in  100  from  this  cause,  where  proper 
precautions  are  observed. 

To  the  non-professional  members  of  my  audience 
all  this,  so  wonderful  is  it,  may  appear  as  the  tale  of  a 
romancer,  or  the  exaggeration  of  an  enthusiast.  But 
it  is  neither.  I  have  merely  touched  upon  the  theme ; 
by  no  means  have  I  done  it  justice  ! 

And  it  requires  no  prophet's  power  to  declare 
that  scientific  medicine  is  in  our  day  in  its  early,  pu- 
ling infancy.  What  has  been  done  is  as  nothing  to 
what  will  be  done !  What  we  know,  falls  into  insig- 
nificance when  compared  with  what  we  shall,  what 
we  must  know,  within  the  next  century. 


48  DR.    T.    GAILLARD   THOMAS' 

And  what  has  accomplished  all  that  has  thus  far 
been  effected  in  the  way  of  advancement  ?  The  great, 
the  leading  factor  has  been  a  change  in  our  methods 
of  study  ;  an  improvement  in  our  plans  of  investiga- 
tion ;  a  more  philosophical  style  of  collating  our  facts, 
and  drawing  our  deductions.  The  laboratory  work, 
clinical  study,  and  the  use  of  instruments  of  precision 
to  wKich  special  reference  has  been  made,  have  all 
been  merely  means  for  developing  the  experimental 
and  demonstrative  methods  of  study  which  have  re- 
sulted in  the  new  era  which  is  now  fully  dawning  upon 
us  in  all  its  abundance  of  results ! 

If  in  this  great  work  the  monarchical  countries  of 
Europe  have  outstripped  our  own  land,  it  is  because 
of  the  endowment  of  institutions  of  learning,  the  aid 
given  to  struggling  science,  the  fostering  hand 
stretched  out  to  art  by  such  forms  of  government  on 
the  one  hand ;  and  the  well  known  neglect  of  these 
things  by  republics,  on  the  other.  Ever  since  the 
foundation  of  our  country,  our  medical  colleges  have 
struggled  onwards  as  private  enterprises  dependent 
for  existence  upon  the  fees  of  those  to  whom  their  di- 
plomas were  granted ;  unaided  by  government ;  un- 
thought  of  by  society  ;  unendowed  by  men  of  wealth, 
whose  millions  at  their  death  went  to  the  support  of 
some  distant  enterprise,  the  erection  of  some  monu- 
ment or  statue,  or  some  similar  work,  of  great,  though 
far  less  importance. 

All  honor  to  the  house  of  Vanderbilt,  which  has 
created  a  new  era ;  set  an  example  which  is  even  now 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  49 

being  nobly  followed ;  and  engraved  its  memory  upon 
the  heart  of  every  true  physician  of  our  country  ! 

We  are  engaged  to-day  in  inaugurating  a  Clinic 
and  a  Lying-in  Hospital,  both  put  at  the  disposal  of 
our  art  by  Vanderbilt's  immediate  connections,  desir- 
ous to  emulate  his  glorious  example,  and  eager  to  lay 
Medicine  under  a  greater  debt  than  the  great  one 
which  it  already  owed  to  its  head. 

"  The  Vanderbilt  Clinic  !  "  Did  the  origin  of  the 
word  "  Clinic  "  ever  strike  you  ?  It  is  derived  from 
the  Greek  "  ^xkivYiy'  a  *'  couch,"  and  its  full  signifi- 
cance is  this  ;  "in  these  halls  the  art  of  medicine  is  to 
be  studied  at  the  bedside.  The  mind  of  the  student 
is  not  to  be  filled  with  the  thoughts,  the  dicta,  the 
suppositions  and  the  deductions  of  other  men  ;  but 
here  he  is  to  study  disease  in  its  ghastly  truth  for 
himself,  by  the  aid  of  sight,  touch,  hearing,  and  smell, 
and  to  draw  conclusions  for  himself.  Here  he  is  to 
seek  the  truth  and  to  learn  from  his  teachers  how  to 
find  it ;  not  to  accept  as  truth  what  those  teachers  be- 
lieve to  be  such ;  not  to  strive  to  learn  from  their  ex- 
perience, but  to  collate  facts  and  acquire  experience 
for  himself." 

This  is  to  be  one  great  out-come  of  this  clinic. 
But  equally  important  results  remain  to  be  told,  even 
without  alluding  to  the  self-evident  one  of  the  great 
blessing  which  will  accrue  to  the  poor  of  New  York, 
who  will  profit  by  the  immediate  effect  of  the  medical 
service  now  placed  at  their  disposal. 

And  now  I  come  to  tell  you  of  a  singular  coinci- 
4 


50  DR.   T.    GAILLARD   THOMAS' 

dence  in  this  exhibition  of  generosity  and  charity, 
which  is  not  generally  known,  and  of  which  I  would 
make  history  did  the  power  lie  within  me.  Before 
the  thought  of  the  great  gift  made  by  Vanderbilt  had 
entered  into  his  charitable  mind,  one  of  the  members 
of  the  Faculty  of  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Sur- 
geons, under  the  authority  of  a  son-in-law  of  Mr. 
Vanderbilt,  was  searching  for  a  location  for  a  Mater- 
nity Hospital  to  be  erected  and  equipped  entirely  at 
his  personal  expense.  To-day  the  Sloane  Maternity 
Hospital  is  in  full  working  order,  and  with  the  Van- 
derbilt Clinic  is  put  at  the  disposal  of  the  College  so 
richly  endowed  by  the  head  of  the  house. 

Even  this  is  not  all.  The  wife  of  this  generous 
man,  a  true  daughter  of  her  house,  apparently  unwill- 
ing to  be  outdone  in  good  works  even  by  her  own 
husband,  has  assumed  the  entire  expenditure  attend- 
ant upon  the  working  of  this  magnificent  charity. 

What  grand  rivalry  ;  what  princely  extravagance  ; 
what  God-given  inspiration ! 

Yet  great  as  is  this  munificent  offering  to  human- 
ity and  to  science,  greater,  far  greater  is  the  reward, 
which  even  in  their  lifetime,  must  be  meted  out  to 
these  generous  donors.  This  house  of  refuge  and  of 
mercy,  built  with  all  the  cunning  of  the  architecture  of 
our  day,  will  stand  for  centuries  !  What  monarch's 
wealth  could  purchase  a  sweeter  thought,  a  more  sub- 
lime reflection  than  that  throughout  that  time  the 
prayers  of  thousands  of  weary,  sad-faced  women ;  of 
thousands  of  grimy  sons  of  toil,  will  constantly  ascend 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  5 1 

for  their  benefactors,  in  gentle  murmurs,  to  the  judg- 
ment seat  of  God  ? 

"  The  prayer  of  the  righteous  man  availeth 
much,"  but  rather  give  to  me  the  suppHcations  in  my 
behalf  of  the  suffering,  the  friendless,  and  the  poor,  to 
whom  it  has  been  vouchsafed  me  to  have  offered  aid 
and  comfort. 

A  favorite  dictum  of  theologians  of  the  olden  time 
was  this,  "  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  is  the  seed  of  the 
Church."  So  deeds,  such  as  those  of  which  I  have 
just  made  grateful  mention,  are  the  seed  of  science. 
From  the  seed  thus  sown  will  spring  up  results 
throughout  our  broad  land,  from  Maine  to  Texas, 
which  will  multiply  an  hundred  fold  the  generous  acts 
which  we  here  acknowledge.  He  is  short-sighted  in- 
deed who  sees  in  the  gifts  which  we  receive  to-day  a 
benefit  to  one  institution  or  to  one  city.  A  noble  ex- 
ample has  been  set,  a  fruitful  hint  been  given  which 
will  redound  to  the  advantage  of  science  and  human- 
ity throughout  our  wide  borders  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Pacific  shores. 

Trustees  and  Faculty  of  the  College  of  Physicians 
and  Surgeons  who  are  to-day  made  custodians  of 
these  princely  gifts,  a  weighty  responsibility  rests 
upon  us  so  to  administer  them  as  to  develop  to  its 
fullest  extent  the  intentions  of  the  givers.  It  is  clear 
that  their  desire  has  been  to  elevate  the  standard  of 
Medical  Education  in  our  country,  to  advance  the 
science  of  Medicine,  and  thus  to  benefit  science  and 
humanity.     Let  no  narrow  policy,  no  views  bounded 


52  DR.    T.    GAILLARD   THOMAS 

by  local  interests,  no  ambitions  less  lofty  than  those 
to  which  allusion  has  just  been  made,  enter  our  minds. 
But  with  a  high  and  firm  resolve  let  us  strive  in  the 
general  cause  of  science  and  humanity  so  to  acquit 
ourselves  of  our  stewardship,  that  those  who  sit  in 
judgment  upon  us  after  our  mortal  frames  shall  have 
become  dust,  may  pronounce  upon  our  memories  that 
verdict,  so  much  to  be  desired,  "  Well  done,  good 
and  faithful  servants." 

The  thought  which  entered  the  minds  of  the  crea- 
tors of  these  noble  charities,  that  in  endowing  the 
quiet,  unobtrusive  and  unobserved  science  of  medi- 
cine they  could  benefit  humanity,  elevate  art,  rear  to 
their  names  an  unostentatious  yet  pleasant  memorial 
in  these  halls  "  where  charity  and  science  so  no- 
bly meet "  was  an  original,  a  happy,  a  noble  one. 
Whence  came  it  ?  Not  from  a  desire  for  fame.  Half 
the  gift  elsewhere  bestowed  would  have  brought  them 
more.  Not  from  a  wish  to  advance  worldly  interests. 
What  worldling  craves  the  affectionate  admiration  of 
a  guild  like  ours  ?  It  had  its  birth  in  some  nobler, 
loftier,  purer  sphere. 

History  gives  abundant  evidence  of  man's  desire 
to  live  in  the  memory  of  those  whom  he  leaves  in  this 
life,  after  he  has  crossed  the  dark  and  silent  river  ;  of 
his  aversion  to  the  chilling  thought  of  being  com- 
pletely obliterated  and  fading  from  the  minds  of  men 
like  the  baseless  fabric  of  a  vision,  leaving  not  a  rack 
behind.  And  history  has  taught  us  that  it  is  not  the 
column    of  brass  or  the  statue  of  stone  which  best 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  53 

preserves  the  name  entrusted  to  it.  To  live  after 
death  our  monument  must  be  erected  in  the  grate- 
ful hearts  of  those  who  succeed  us.  When  the  arch 
of  Severus  shall  have  made  dust  for  the  streets  of 
Rome ;  the  simple  prayer  of  the  good  Chrysostom, 
contained  in  ten  short  lines,  will  cause  his  memory  to 
live  for  ages  in  the  minds  of  men.  Lorenzo  de  Medi- 
cis  left  his  memory  to  the  keeping  of  art ;  of  art 
honored,  elevated  and  purified  by  him ;  his  name 
shines  more  brightly  to-day  than  it  did  even  in  his 
own  time.     Ars  longa  !     Vita  brevis  ! 

In  whatsoever  garb  it  may  appear  there  is  a 
charm,  a  beauty  about  the  God-like  virtue  Charity, 
which  commands  for  it  admiration,  sympathy  and  re- 
spect. How  various  are  its  manifestations  !  Here 
we  behold  the  miser  indulging  in  it  as  a  posthumous 
duty,  because  he  cannot  carry  his  riches  with  him  into 
the  hereafter ;  bequeathing  his  cherished  millions  to 
the  poor,  because  "there  is  no  pocket  to  a  shroud  ;  " 
here  the  ambitious  demagogue  hoarding  wealth  dur- 
ing a  lifetime  to  endow  an  institution  or  erect  a  statue 
to  preserve  his  name  from  oblivion  ;  and  here  the 
truly  pious  and  virtuous  leaving  their  goods  for  the 
advancement  of  religion  and  the  spread  of  the  Gos- 
pel. In  all  these  forms  Charity  is  ever  the  most 
God-like  and  radiant  of  the  virtues.  But  how  much 
more  noble  and  more  admirable  does  it  appear  when 
coming  as  a  gift  during  the  lifetime  of  the  donor,  who 
then  shares  his  possessions,  with  his  needy  brother, 
and  watches  with  tender  solicitude  the  resulting  bene- 


54  DR.   T.    GAILLARD   THOMAS' 

fit !  To  give  with  posthumous  generosity  to  the 
heathen  of  distant  lands,  and  beyond  far  off  seas,  is 
noble  indeed :  but  more  noble,  more  beautiful  is  it  far, 
to  see  wealth  shared  during  a  lifetime  with  the  beggar 
at  one's  door-step. 

How  beautifully  is  this  idea  illustrated  in  the 
charming  poem  of  the  "Vision  of  Sir  Launfal,"  a 
knight  of  old,  who  leaving  untended  the  poor  at  his 
gate  sought  to  recover,  for  the  love  of  God,  and  at 
the  point  of  his  lance,  the  Holy  Grail  from  far  distant 
Palestine.  Returning  disappointed  and  dejected,  the 
christian  soldier  sees  at  his  castle  gate  a  leper,  miser- 
able, wretched,  outcast.  Suddenly  he  feels  "that  one 
touch  of  nature  which  makes  all  mankind  kin,"  and  he 
is  inspired  with  the  impulse  to  pity,  and  to  aid  him  as 
he  pleads  for  alms. 

"And  Sir  Launfal  said — '  I  behold  in  thee 
An  image  of  Him  who  died  on  the  tree  ; 
Thou  also  hast  had  thy  crown  of  thorns, — 
Thou  also  hast  had  the  world's  buffets  and  scorns. — 
And  to  thy  life  were  not  denied 
The  wounds  in  the  hands,  and  feet  and  side  : 
Mild  Mary's  son  acknowledge  me  ; 
Behold  through  him  I  give  to  thee  ! ' 

"  As  Sir  Launfal  mused  with  a  downcast  face, 
A  light  shone  round  about  the  place  ; 
The  leper  no  longer  crouched  at  his  side, 
But  stood  before  him  glorified, 
Shining  and  tall  and  fair  and  straight 
As  the  pillar  that  stood  by  the  Beautiful  Gate. 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  55 

"  His  words  were  shed  softer  than  leaves  from  the  pine 
And  they  fell  on  Sir  Launfal  like  snows  on  the  brine, 
Which  mingle  their  softness  and  quiet  in  one 
With  the  shaggy  unrest  they  float  down  upon ; 
And  the  voice  that  was  calmer  than  silence  said 
Lo  !  it  is  I,  be  not  afraid  ! 
In  many  climes  without  avail 
Thou  hast  spent  thy  life  for  the  Holy  Grail  ; 
Behold  it  is  here, — this  cup  which  thou 
Didst  fill  at  the  streamlet  for  me  but  now  ; 
This  crust  is  my  body  broken  for  thee, 
This  water  his  blood  that  died  on  the  tree  ; 
The  Holy  Supper  is  kept  indeed, 
In  whatso  we  share  with  another's  need  ; 
Not  what  we  give,  but  what  we  share. — 
For  the  gift  without  the  giver  is  bare  ; 
Who  gives  himself  with  his  alms  feeds  three, 
Himself,  his  hungering  neighbor  and  Me." 

Generous  donors  of  these  most  noble  charities. 
Sons  and  daughters  of  one  whose  name  will  never 
fade  from  the  annals  of  American  Medicine ;  com- 
missioned by  my  colleagues  I  come  to  you  the  bearer 
of  three-fold  thanks  !  In  the  name  of  Science  for 
which  you  have  shown  so  much  solicitude ;  in  the 
name  of  Medicine  for  which  you  have  so  nobly 
pledged  your  appreciation  ;  in  the  name  of  Human- 
ity, which  for  cycle  upon  cycle  will  profit  by  your  lib- 
erality, from  the  deepest  depths  of  our  hearts,  we 
thank  you  ! 

''Tout  lasse,  tout  casse,  tout  passe,"  says  a  quaint 
old  French  proverb.  The  only  exception  to  the  truth 
embodied  in  its  simple  alliteration  is  to  be  found,  in 


56  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS. 

this  world,  in  the  enduring  pleasure  which  is  born  of 
good  deeds  done  to  our  fellow  men.  God  grant  that 
that  enduring  pleasure  may  be  yours  and  that  it  may 
abide  with  you  to  the  end  of  life's  pilgrimage  ! 

May  the  wisdom,  the  resources,  and  the  skill 
which  centuries  of  labor  have  bestowed  upon  medi- 
cine be  ever  in  their  best  and  brightest  estate  when 
called  for  by  you  in  the  hour  of  your  sorest  need ! 
May  the  bread  which  you  have  so  lavishly  cast  upon 
the  waters,  be  returned  to  you  in  prosperity  in  this 
world,  and  in  life  in  that  which  is  to  come  ! 


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